"I feel a terrible need for religion,” wrote Vincent van Gogh in a letter to his brother Theo while working on The Starry Night. The words used much later by Henri Dutilleux in his Correspondances could perhaps be endorsed by all the composers who, like him, stubbornly cared for the Catholic spirit of an increasingly secularized France in the 20th century. The concert of the NFM choirs will feature the music of four of them – Jean Langlais, Francis Poulenc, Maurice Duruflé and the most famous of them – Olivier Messiaen. The ensembles will be accompanied by the organist of the choir of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, Yves Castagnet.

Castagnet has been working in the biggest church on Île de la Cité since 1988, when, at the age of only twenty-four, he won the prestigious Grand Prix de Chartres organ competition. At Notre Dame, he collaborated for some time with Lionel Sow, the current Artistic Director of the NFM Choir, who back then was in charge of the Maîtrise Notre Dame de Paris choir school. Castagnet has prepared the traditional Latin hymn Veni Creator specially for the concert and this composition will be premiered at the NFM. Another contemporary French artist, whose music will sound tonight, will be Fabrice Gregorutti – he is not only a composer, but also a successful conductor and organizer of musical life.

The biggest, and certainly also the best-known work in the concert programme will be Requiem op. 9 by Maurice Duruflé composed in 1947. The composer said about it that it is not “some ephemeral work about detachment from earthly concerns”, but that “it reflects, in the unchanging form of Christian prayer, the pain of the human being facing their ultimate destiny”. The nine-movement funeral mass uses traditional Gregorian melodies, but dresses them in non-traditional robes of modern harmony. The work, one of only fourteen published by Duruflé, is famous for its beauty.